The present invention relates to high reliability battery systems, and particularly those used in satellites and other environments inaccessible for repair.
Batteries are a major weight item in a spacecraft. Nickel hydrogen (NiH.sub.2) batteries are typically used in a spacecraft system as energy storage devices. Conventional energy storage devices use redundant parallel battery strings 11 to attain high reliability operation, as illustrated in FIG. 1. Each battery string includes a plurality of battery cells 13. Parallel battery strings are used because if one of the cells in a particular battery string fails and becomes an open circuit, the entire string of battery cells fails.